Should you get an MBA?

It takes a monumental commitment, both financially and personally, but an MBA could be the fastest ticket to business proficiency.

Contributing Writer, Computerworld |

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Marascio says that in his role as an officer at a small digital media and products company, "an MBA is pretty close to mandatory. On a day-to-day basis, I'm working with operations people and marketing people and creative people and technology people. The ability to bridge all of those silos and to be successful really takes someone who is much more strategically than technically focused. I find that since I went through the program, I spend much more time viewing things from alternate perspectives and much more holistically."

Pulling the Right Levers

James Dallas, senior vice president of quality and operations at Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., agrees with Szygenda that growth is today's No. 1 business priority. Growing the business, he says, comes down to "knowing what the [business] levers are and which ones to pull to have the maximum impact." In short, it comes down to strategy.

Prior to earning an MBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School in 1994, "I knew technologies and I knew how to execute on projects," Dallas says. He had graduated from college more than 10 years earlier, and in the intervening years he had supported a wide array of functions at his then-employer, Georgia-Pacific. "I started out supporting transportation and logistics, and I ended up becoming the general manager of that function. I supported our distribution and operations, and I ended up running the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of that business," he recalls.

But it was as an MBA student that Dallas says he learned "how to look at business models and the key questions to ask at an enterprise level. The MBA allowed me to get better at deciding which projects to do and when to do them based on the phase and evolution of the business model in the overall competitive environment."

Dallas says it was after earning his MBA that he started being asked to go on sales calls to some of Georgia-Pacific's largest customers "to talk about IT from a business standpoint, addressing technology from the point of view of the customer."

"I was also in strategy meetings to talk about overall business strategy, not just waiting for the IT part of the meeting to come up," he recalls. Now, if a business unit executive has a question about why his or her IT project isn't higher up on a list, Dallas simply traces how that particular project maps to the overall business strategy, and "if it isn't pulling on one of the specified business levers, it's not at the top."

The bottom line: "A CEO is looking for a CIO who will transform the business, not just implement technology. CIOs are being held accountable for their contributions to the bottom line, not just what they did to make things go faster," Dallas notes. "An MBA has allowed me to generate greater value."

MBAs lead to leadership roles

Make no mistake: An MBA might not be listed as mandatory in many IT job descriptions, but graduate-level management degrees are without a doubt preferred by companies seeking to fill business/technology leadership roles.

"All other things being equal, I'd give preference to the candidate with the MBA," says Jim Marascio, CTO at 11Giraffes.

At Matson Navigation, CIO Peter Weis notes that he just promoted an applications architect to a management role in software development, and "one of the primary reasons I promoted him is because he has an MBA," he says. Overall, about 5% of the professionals in Matson's IT organization hold MBAs. "I'd love for my entire project management office to have MBAs," Weis says.

"Absolutely you have to have an MBA if you want to be viewed as a strategic business partner," says Whirlpool Corp. CIO Kevin Summers. "In today's environment and in the future, there will be very few people at the VP-and-above levels without an MBA," he predicts.

James Dallas, senior vice president of quality and operations at Medtronic, says an MBA surely gives candidates who are up for leadership positions an edge. But what he's even more interested in is how and when the potential leader earned his MBA.

"If someone tells me they went to school at night while having a family and got their MBA, that tells me they can manage multiple priorities at one time, which is a key trait for an effective leader," Dallas says.

Moreover, Dallas advises his executive peers to be prepared with an advancement plan for employees with newly minted MBAs.

"Companies have to seriously think about what is next for the person" who is pursuing their MBA, Dallas says.

"Once you get your MBA, you want to apply your learning. I tell companies to be prepared once that person graduates. If you don't have a bigger role waiting for them, they will try to find one outside," he warns.

But a bigger role, additional responsibilities and a new title after earning an MBA don't necessarily mean more money, at least not initially. In fact, most recent graduates shouldn't expect to offset the tens of thousands of dollars they spent on tuition and expenses with a big salary increase in their first few years after completing school.

"I never did the calculation. In fact, I encourage people not to," says IT management consultant Paul Glen. "If people look at education only through the lens of investment, they are missing the point. It's about expanding your mind. If someone asks me about an MBA primarily as an investment, I tell them not to do it. If they want the credential more than the knowledge, they probably won't get the value from it."

That said, Glen estimates that he recouped the cost of his MBA within a few years. "But as they say," he cautions, "past performance is no indication of future performance."

— Julia King

Julia King is a Computerworld contributing writer based in Pennsylvania.

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